Mustique and the “Royals”, Jan 26th-28th

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On Thursday morning, we pulled our mooring lines and headed off to Mustique, about a 4-5 hour trip.   There really is only one good place to moor or anchor and that was Britannia Bay.  We
were surprised at how few boats were in the moorings but pleased to be out of the heavy winds.   Once tied up with the help of the Harbor master in his dingy, he told us the Island was in a
lock-down due to the presence of Prince William and his wife Kate and her family.   However, we could still stay and pay for the minimum 3-day price for mooring and have limited access to the
island.   We agreed and paid 200EC for the three nights and settled in.

Thursday started their 2 week-long Jazz Fest and this was one major reason for us being there.    We were not allowed to “check-in” with customs because that would  mean a trip to the airport and that was “off-limits”.  We could go ashore, (with NO cameras), walk the immediate beaches, and shop in the 4-5 little shops off the main beach.   We could also go to Basils Bar, home of the Blues/Jazz festival.     We made reservations for dinner for 8pm Thursday night.

Dinner was great and we had a nice table close to where the music stage was.  Between our table and the stage was of course, the dance floor .   After dinner, and after the music started to “warm us up”, we of course headed to the dance floor and before you knew it, the dance floor was filled with dancers enjoying each song.   Our biggest thrill (though Ken did not really “get-it” at first) was when Prince William and Kate arrived and soon were dancing along with all of us.  the Dutchess Kate danced several times with others in their party but it was fun to think we were so close we could see their sweat!

Friday, we went to shore for coffee and use of internet at Ali’s Café and saw Kate’s Mother( supposedly) and young girl.    We were stopped twice by security later in the afternoon when we took the dingy along the south shore of the beach where there were lovely small shoals for snorkeling.   I explained that the harbor master said we could go that far and that seemed to then be ok for us to be there.    It was a bit wavy for me and at times, the waves would wash me over the coral.   With no gloves or fins on, I stayed in a bit closer to shore than Ken. He was looking for his lobster!

Even though we paid for 3 days,  with no way to explore the island, we decided to push on to St. Lucia.   Ken had a Flight on Tuesday and there would be things to do on the boat before he left.   We left Mustique Saturday at 7AM for a very long days sail of 10 hours!

 

Clifton Union, Attitude adjustment for Gaby and Willy, Jan 24-25th

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Gaby and Willy had not been having much fun due to all the wind.   Apparently, this was a first “sailing” date Gaby had been on, and she was “stuck” on the boat for three weeks.  They had picked up their boat in Trinadad and motor sailed 22 hours of heavy winds and waves to Grenada!  I can’t even imagine if that was my first taste of “sailing”, I might have went straight to the airport when we got to Grenada.

Tuesday morning we encouraged them to sail over to Union Island about one hour away and anchor at Clifton.   We were convinced her attitude would soften with it’s lovely island setting and  charming local ways.    We did not see them for a while after we arrived and hooked up to moorings, but when I saw Gaby the next time, she threw kisses to me saying that this was paradise.  Glad we could help their date!

 

Our mooring that looked out to the reef and had a busy surf-kite activity.  Tried to download some of the video of the surfers!

The Happy Island Bar.  Built on the reef out of conch shells and then mortar!

We usually were the ONLY customers at the Happy Island Bar!

Ken and I spent Tuesday and Wednesday relaxing, snorkeling and visiting  The Happy Island Bar.  Ken and I took advantage of the Yacht clubs great internet  before we set off to the Island of Mustique.   Before we left, Gaby and Willy arranged to have a beach BBQ, complete with lobster.    Their local cook was Martin who did all the shopping, cooking and cleaning.  We only had to bring our dishes and glassware (and wine).   It was really lovely and a nice change from restaurants and/or eating on the boat.  Lobster taste so good outside!

Ken, Willy and Gaby (behind) at “our” beach lobster BBQ

 

Our host, Martin, complete with lobster, potatoes, salad, and Island dogs for cleanup afterward.

 

 

Martin, washing our dishes!

One of the “local” dogs that had very good manners.   Did not care much for our left over rice!  Pick-y!

 

 

 

Carriacou, Petite Martinique and Petite St. Vincent (PSV)

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Saturday Evening, January 21, 2012

I think I had 2 rum and cokes sucked down when  at 6:30, we finally laid anchor in the bay which was at this time full of charter catamarans and cruisers.   Salty, wet and exhausted,  we showered in the boat, had dinner and set the anchor alarm on.   It was very windy and by 1:30 the alarm went off to tell us that we were not holding.  It had not moved much so we reset the alarm and went back to bed.  I decided to sleep on the settee and at 2:30 the alarm went off again.  I went up to take a look and realized that we were about 5 feet from the boat in back of us.  I encouraged Ken to get up, we started the motor and pulled up the drifting anchor.   With foredeck light on and us trying not to awake our neighbors at such a late hour, we reset the anchor and tried again.  This time it held, and at 9:30 Sunday morning we left to motor to Petite Martinique.

Sunday’s ride to Petite Martinique

Again, straight into the wind and weather was still  rainy.   What looked to be a short sail or motor around the tip of Carriacou and over to Petite Martinique actually took about 2 hours  and when we arrived in the small harbor, I called the local beach restaurant (Palm Beach Restaurant)to see if we could use their mooring.   We had read that if you eat at their restaurant, you could pick up one of their two mooring balls. They answered my call,  but said they were closed for Sunday, but yes we could use the big orange mooring!  Sweet!

Got our first line on the moorings plastic loop after a bit of trial and error (the wind was NOT helping), and then decided to put a second line on the moorings rope loop as a back up.  (with all the wind through the night, we discovered one  line had actually been cut by the sharp plastic of the mooring’s decapitated loop)   We were only held by the second (after thought) line!  We now put two lines on every mooring as a rule.

Petite Martinique Fuel dock

Monday,  after a trip to the beach for breakfast (at Palm Beach Restaurant), we decided that we would get a water taxi and go to Petite St. Vincent for drinks and maybe a light meal.   While we had been on the Petite Martinique, we met another boating couple (Gaby and Willy) at the beach restaurant and asked if they were interested in going also.

As it turned out, they had to move their mooring and in doing so, Gaby dropped their only boat hook in the water and could not get hooked up.   They called over to us and asked if we could help with our dingy.   We set out to motor to their boat, but soon realized we would be soaked from the wind and waves and decided to seek help from a local fishing boat that was moored behind us.   Our instantly new local friends, Calvin and Howard,  jumped into their beautifully painted  wooden boat that was tied up next to their larger fishing boat, and went off to help Gaby and Willi.  Despite the wind and the waves, the “boys” soon had them on their new mooring.  Calvin and Howard then came back to pick us up as we had also asked them to take us to PSV as a water taxi.  While motoring past Gaby and Willie’s new mooring, we asked if they would like to jump on board and go with us. They quickly agreed ( I think Gaby just needed to get on land and was happy to come with us!).  After the 5  minute motor to the PSV dock at the resort, we arranged for a 8PM pickup to get back to our boats.  (We paid them 120 EC to thank them for all their taxi help even though they did not ask for anything)

Petite St. Vincent dingy dock

PSV’s Resort Bar open to the public

Lobster heading to the grill

View of Petite Martinique from PSV

PSV is a private island with a very lovely resort located on the West side.   Most of the Island is off limits to the public and held exclusively for the guests of the resort.   This is where we saw the two
LARGE yachts anchored off with rumor of Kate and Prince William.   No sighting, but did see a helicopter  fly over and land on one of  the yachts.   (Bryce Berndt says the yacht on the left is called “Eclipse” and at 536 ft,  is the largest privately owned yacht in the world)  .  We had a lovely time enjoying several cocktails and appetizers while watching the sun set before getting ready for our pickup.

 

Sunset reflected off our glass table on PSV.